MINUTES of Second Meeting of Evidence and Defendants Committee Held at 2 p. m. on Tuesday, 12 March 1946. In Room 610. --------------------- Comdr. McMillen, USNR, and Mr. Danly were in attendance at the Meeting. 1. Minutes of Last Meeting The Minutes of the last meeting were approved. (a) Documents Sub-Committee Brig. Quilliam repeated the appointment of Capt . Williamson as Documents Officer. His functions had been defined in a memo sent out by Mr. Keenan on 9 March 1946. Brig. Quilliam reported that a preliminary examination had been made of the inventory of the documents obtained from the foreign Office and that priority lists for scanning had been prepared. This examination had of necessity not keen adequate, and for a thorough examination it would be necessary for investigators with knowledge of the different parts to cheek the priority lists drawn up. There were also documents obtained from the War Ministry and other Ministries, some of which had come from Hachijo, where they had been hidden in caves. The inventories of those had not been examined except superficially, and it was essential that one person should be appointed to deal with thern and decide which were of value. He suggested that Mr. Mignone should take over this work, and this was agreed. It was further suggested that assistance from Major MacFarlane on this work would be of great value. Action Mr. Justice Mansfield to make inquiries as to the possibility of the loan of Major MacFarlane’s services for the period of about one month. If this were not possible, Major MacFarlane to be asked to suggest the most competent man in his department for the work. (b) Certifying of Documents. Mr. Mignone produced a specimen certificate to be attacked to Japanese translations of official documents. This was approved. (c) Destruction of Documents, It was suggested that Capt. Williamson should take this matter up with Mr. Ohta, asking him for a complete list of Japanese Government departments which had burned records prior to the arrival of Allied troops. After discussion, it was agreed that this should be left in abeyance for the time being. (d) Document to be given to Defendants. The Chairman read a draft of the document, the production of which had been decided upon at to last Meeting. It was decided to defer discussion of this until the next Meeting, when copies of the draft would have been circulated to all Members. (e) Nuremberg Documents. The Chairman read the text of a cable that had been sent on 6 March, asking for a Liaison Officer at Nuremberg. Mr. Tavenner did not consider that this suggestion had been concrete enough, and thought that someone from this end should be sent to Nuremberg to act in this capacity. It Action was decided to put this suggestion to the Executive Committee at its next Meeting. (f) Troop movements, Government expenditure, etc. It was reported that the Executive Committee was handling this.